THE NAME OF AUSTRALIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20709, 6 May 1929, Page 10

THE NAME OF AUSTRALIA.

ITS ORIGIN AND EARLY USE. Amohg the treasures exhibited in the showcase in the large central reading room of. the Melbourne Pnblic Library, there is the original edition of “Purchas his Pilgrims,” published in London in 1625. The booh is opened on page 1432 of part iy, where the word Australia occurs, and a card •is placed on it explaining that the text refers to the discovery in 1606 of certain' islands—the Xew Hebrides—by the Spanish navigator do Quiros, who really named the land he had discovered “Austrialia del Espiritn Santo” (Austrialia of the Holy Ghost) “ By a printer's or copyist's error,” she note goes on to say, “ this is here given ns Australia, the .first time the word was ever so printed.” In perusing some old accounts of voyages, Dutch and Spanish, I happened to come across the word “ Australia ”' used at an earlier date (states Dr A. Lodewyckx in the Melbourne Argus).' Pursuing my investigations, I . found several other passages, which help us to understand the affiliation of the name of Australia with Quiros’s “ Austrialia,” and thus to clear up its origin and early use, more than 300 years ago.

Quires, like Christopher Columbus, was a great idealist and visionary. He thought that, he had discovered the great south land, stretching all the way from somewhere near the Strait of Magellan to New Guinea, and right down to the South Pole, a country larger than America, and offering immense possibilities of trade and colonisation. He wished. to interest the King of Spain, Philip 111,-in this new part of the world, and to obtain a Royal commission to found a Spanish colony there. So, in honour of the King, who belonged to the house of Austria, he called the land Australia del Espiritu Santo, “ from his Majesty’s title of Austria,” as he says in one of the numerous memorials which he addressed to-the King on the subject. However, it is obvious that what Quiros had in mind before everything in naming the. land he discovered was to give an equivalent of the older , Latin name of the mysterious, 'south land,' Terra Australis. The, adjective Austral liad two forms in Spanish in- Quiros's time—namely, Austral and Austria!, ’ both of which occur in his writings. Having the choice of those two forms, he chose the second .to form his derivation, and called the country Austrialia to flatter the King. But already in Quiros’s time the adjective Austral; was far more common in Spanish. thaa tfae alternative • form Austrial, and naturally the public, not heeding Quiros’s intention ,to associate the name with the “ title of Austria,” and being more familiar with the form Austral, would he inclined to say Australia instead of Austrialia, the latter, being awkward to pronounce, • whereas the former is easy and more euphonious. As a matter of fact, we occasionally find Australia in Quiros’s own writings, as published in Madrid in 1876. I found it in the title of ..one. of his memorials printed at Valencia as early as 1611; and in the life of one of the Viceroys of Peru, the. fourth Marques de Canetc, published at Madrid in 1613, containing a short account of Quiros’s. expedition; it is said , that King -Philip Til sent Quiros “ para el descubrimiento de la Australia,” that is, for the discovery of Australia. ■The author of this book-says that' he had the narrative of Quiros before him. From all this I‘think that.it is clear that the name 'of ’ Australia arose in Spain between the years 1607 and 1611, as an alternative form to Quiros’s Austrialia, and in accordance with the genius of the Spanish language. When we later find the word in “Purchas his, Pilgrimea” and elsewhere, we need, not look upon it as a misprint or a copyist’s, slip. Purchas, who has both Australia and Austrialia, simply reproduces these forms after they have both become current in Spain. " ■’ | : • Quiros’s ''discovery attracted a great deal of .attention, and his famous eighth memorial to the King was soon translated into several languages. But nowhere was the‘interest-keener-than in Holland. So we need, not- be, surprised to find that the first book to use the name-of Australia repeatedly and consistently appeared in Holland. It is called the “ Mirror of Australian Navigation ” (Spieghel der Australische Navigatie) , and it was published in Amsterdam in 1622. This book contains, the official journal of a voyage accomplished in 1615 and 1616 in search of the south land, by Jacob Lo Maire and Willem Schouten. The voyage was undertaken because the Dutch East India'Company’s charter forbade all other ships than those of that company to visit the Dutch Indies or even to sail round the Cape of Good Hope, or through the Strait of Magellan, both routes being expressly reserved for the Dutch East India Company’s ships. The purpose of the expedition; which was. financed by* a rival company, called the, Australian Company, was, first, to find a new passage from the Southern Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; and, secondly, to discover the great southern continent 6f Terra Australis. The first purpose was fully achieved, the- Strait of las Maire being discovered bn January 25, 1616. But the Australian continent was hot sighted, because, when near the Solomon Islands, Schouten was unwilling ‘to take the south-west course into unknown regions. He preferred to make for Java along the north coast of New Guinea, which was already known. In the ship’s journal are a few passages, which are among the very first, in which the word Australia was ever used Outside Spain. In the neighbourhood of the Strait of Magellan on December 30, 1615, the following entry is made; “The president (that’is! Le Maire) showed to-day for the first time the map of Australia, which pleased our chief mate and upper boatswain very much.” A few weeks later the strait was discovered, but,then, for two months, no important discoveries .were made, and on March 24 Schouten complained that they “were now 460 miles from Peru, we longing very much to sec land, so that we feared that was wo Terra Australia. Also the master (Schouten) said that if he had known that there were no Dutch Indies or Australis Terra this side of Solomon’s Islands he would never have put a foot on the ship. This was talk in which there was not much common sense.” Here for once the terse, matter-of-fact tone of the journal is slightly departed from. We can surmise that some strong language was exchanged between Schouten and Lo Maire on this andother similar occasions. On May 12 1616; “On the I2th the president has given the chief mate and the second mate their maps of Australia and Nova Guinea in order that they may look but and speculate.” On May 22, 1016, after visiting certain islands which were named Hoorn Islands after the city of Hoo;n m Holland: “The master said that he had now found Terrain Australian!, so well it pleased him, a river of fresh water, plenty of pigs on shore; and other things which pleased our mates very much.” One wonders whether Schouten was joking. On June 2, 1016:, “It is certain that Australia lerra is not far from here.”. This was written near’the Solomon Islands.’ If they had now sailed to the south-west they would have found the east coast of Australia very soon. But Schouten’, as we have seen, made straight for Java; On arrival there,the one remaining ship of the expedition, the other having been lost in the Atlantic, was-confiscated by the Governor-General of the Dutch East India Company for having,infringed its charter, and the crew were repatriated But Jacob Le Maire, one of the bravest navigators of his time died just before the ship on which he travelled reach the home port, aged little more than -30'years; - Several other expeditions’ followed during the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries, but the riddle remained im« solved .until the days of Captain Cook. As for the name of Australia, Professor Scott has shown that it was definitely attached to this continent by Matthew Flinders, who had completed the discovery of the coastline, and who published his “Voyage to Terra Australis, ** containing the proposal to substitute the name Australia for New Holland, almost exactly two centuries after >Le Mai re’s expedition. Whether. Flinders reinvented the name independently or got it from some earlier work I do not know; but it seems probable that, highlycultured man as he was, and passionately devoted to the study of gear graphical exploration, he. would nature ally acquaint £imself with the accounts eff earlier voyages in: the Austral regions, wherein the name Australia had been Used. ...